It is just brilliant to see so many people standing up for high-quality early childhood education and care.
As the Queensland Greens’ spokesperson for Education, I am proud to share that the Greens support the expansion of free kindy from four-year-olds, to include three-year-olds as well.
We know that high-quality kindergarten programs provide an essential educational function, preparing four-year-olds for school in a way that no other program can.
In Queensland, families can access early childhood education and care via the federal Child Care Subsidy, which is productivity-focused and aims to get parents working, and free kindergarten funding. However, two short days per week, for four-year-olds, is not enough to relieve the cost-of-living pressures that families are facing, when early childhood education and care should be free.
600 hours a year of free kindy is not enough. This translates to 15 hours a week (two short days), for 40 weeks of the year. The Greens would support raising the amount of free hours that kids can access. Doubling the subsidy to at least 30 hours a week, for example, would allow for at least 3 full days of high-quality educational care.
We need an early childhood education and care system that is funded like the essential service that it is. It needs be free, universally accessible and publicly funded.
That’s why the Greens are happy to support:
- Free kindy for three- and four-year-olds, delivered in a way that is genuinely free for more than two short days a week.
- A workforce plan to ensure there are enough qualified kindergarten teachers and allied health practitioners to resource the system.
We need a workforce strategy, that includes measures for recruitment, professional development and retention strategies, to boost Queensland’s supply of kindergarten teachers. This plan should including:
- Supported study pathways, including free university and TAFE courses.
- Location incentives for early childhood teachers to take up teaching positions in regional and remote areas.
- Support for leaders.
- Quality placements and mentoring.
- Access to appropriate, affordable housing and other services.
- Better wages - kindergarten teachers need to be paid as well as school teachers.
In addition, the Greens have been pushing to make sure state schools are fully funded and genuinely free. The Queensland Labor government underfunds state schools by around $1.7 billion every year. This means that schools don’t have the staff and resources they need, and schools are having to charge parents and carers more and more in out of pocket expenses. The Greens think that our state schools should be fully funded and genuinely free.
I look forward to working with you to ensure an early childhood education and care system which works for Queensland families and their little ones.